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Wednesday 21st
Leaving Rome by tour coach with 30 or 40 other ageing tourists of varying degrees of decreptitude, we headed south for Naples. We were taken on a walking tour of the highlights of Naples, past the Museum which was once the summer palace of King Vittorio Emmanuel 11, through a large square with a large church and copious touts selling postcards and various other trinkets of indescriminate origins - although probably China. We also went through a large cross shaped building with a 20m high glass roof and mosaic floor - quite spectacular & really the only thing worthwhile seeing. If Vesuvios goes up again and buries this city - the whole of Southern Italy would be the better for it. Definitely not worth excavating!! Our guide's description of the glories of Naples had a fleeting relationship with the facts and I kept looking around to see if we were actually at the place she was describing!!
Back on the bus, we travelled the short distance to Pompeii in the shadow of Mt Vesuvios. After lunch we spent 2 hours walking through the ruins of Pompeii. Really amazing and interesting - if you're interested in archaelogy and/or history you could easily spend a couple of days looking around. The town was a thriving community in 79BC when Vesuvios erupted with road, shops, houses, brothels (still complete with pictorial menus on the walls of the positions available - see photo for an idea) restaurants, public squares, Tribunal (courthouse), gladiator fighting arena and a sound shell. You can see mummified complete remains of a chained slave, a dog and other people who were frozen in time by the eruption. The whole town was buried under 6m of soldified larva/ash and was only rediscovered in the 17th C.
After this hot but interesting few hours we were taken by bus to Sorrento on winding narrow roads with some interesting motor scooter antics weaving in & out of the traffic. We checked into the grand Hotel Vesuvio - a stylishly slightly shabby hotel but with a grand feel about it. We had a drink on the deck overlooking the Bay of Naples & Vesuvios before dinner. At the table next to us at dinner was an ageing but stylish "Duchess" who we figured must be important as she had 2 minders and was treated with deference by all the staff including the performer in the piano bar later.
Thursday 22nd
Left on a crowded ferry for our day trip to the Isle of Capri. The harbour was full of luxury superyachts as to be expected and the town at the harbour was full of thousands of tourists. As soon as possible we got a bus to the town of Anacapri 300m up. The road afforded some spectacular views (see the photos) and many near misses with downhill traffic. At Anacapri we got out of the masses pouring through the stalls and shops for chinese made tac and overpriced luxury goods and headed for the Villa San Michele which we had been told was well worth visiting. This is now a museum and retained as Axel Munthe the Swedish writer who owned it until his death in 1949 had left it. An interesting bit of Swedish/Italian History. The villa was rebuilt from ruins in the early 1900s on the site of a previous Roman Villa occupied by the Emporer Tiberius. Munthe is internationally famous for his book The Story Of San Michele but was also a Dr and a philanthropist. An amazing house with spectacular views over Capri (one patio was built on a sheer drop probably 800 feet down) and beautiful gardens. The next part of our visit to Capri was a trip to the Grotta Azzura (blue grotto) This after a 1 hour queue was a row boat trip through a 1.3m high opening (lying down) into a large cave which was bathed in irredescent blue light from under the water. This is created by the refraction of the sunlight through the small entrance into the water onto the sandy limestone bottom....spectaculer. Lucky to do this as due to the small entrance many days it is closed if there is any significant swell.
San Michele and the grotto were the highlights of the visit to Capri (crowds were the downside). Back to Rome for a late meal at a sidewalk restaurant.
Tomorrow more Rome!
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